When I got my Eagle Scout in 1976 I had just turned 17 and had held all the positions you should hold to work your way up to Eagle Scout such as patrol leader ,senior patrol leader etc.
The whole purpose of getting your eagle is toward becoming a leader in future life. Its to show you and train you to be gentleman and a leader even if like me you go into the trades.as a self employed businessman . which is another story because if you went into blue collar field you where looked down on as an eagle .
But the BSA program has become a joke.
Use to be you might see an ambitious scout make it at 13 and usually they where gone by 15 from program they had a useless award they did it all and nothing left to do it was nothing more than a resume enhancer .
It was even rare-er to see a scout earn all 145? merit badges back then only a couple did it. Now you see a scout every 2-4 weeks get them now you can earn badges 24/7 online thru the scout university if you have the drive and money needed for projects see back in my day it took real money to get thing's done and time some badges like signaling where brutal. But most of them are gone or no longer required to get Eagle replaced with easier badges and if you where working class forget it you could never get all the badges back then you had to buy the book do the project and find a merit badge counselor to sign off and some badges could only be earned at 1 week summer camp for every one who could attend yearly.
So now you see young woman who have entered the program good for them as many other countrys are coed since 90s and in less than 3 years have their Eagle Scout Award just to say they have it. What did they learn ? Nothing
Like I saying all along the whole program has become nothing more than a politically correct joke.
I never mention I am an Eagle Scout unless I am asked .
Its not a thing to shout from the tops of the mountain it is an achievement that is all it is a life style you choose to live and its been totally forgotten what it means to be an Eagle Scout. Thats why I dont mention it.
One of my customers a former school teacher back in 90s told me you could always tell who those going for eagle where . Not anymore .
The last 3 encounters I had with scout troops and cub packs coming into tour places I take care of I want nothing more to do with the scouting program.
I am not the only one I run into the occasional older eagle like myself and we all agree
scouting is not scouting anymore.
Thank God for the Royal Rangers and Trail Life USA because if I had children that's where they would be not Scouts USA which it now calls itself.
